Transnational Migration and the Gender Politics of Scale: Indonesian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia

Recent research has begun to explore the dynamics of transnational migration from a feminist perspective, and studies of migrant domestic workers have played a prominent role in pushing forward this work. Emerging simultaneously, but largely separately, are explicit debates within geography about the politics of scale, the social construction of scale, and the gender dimensions of scale. This article develops an analysis of the gender politics of the production of scale, specifically, the ‘transnationalisation’ of Indonesian activist approaches to overseas migrant domestic workers' issues. Based on fieldwork in an Indonesian community in West Java that has recently become a sending area for migrants to Saudi Arabia and interviews with activists representing Indonesian migrant women, the article examines the various gender‐specific ways in which migrant women's rights activists construct and deploy the scales of the body, the nation and the transnational. It argues that activist approaches to migrant domestic workers' rights and the ways in which activists mobilise migrant women's narratives represent sophisticated feminist theoretical approaches to scale. By identifying and exploring the scale theory embedded in activist strategies, the analysis highlights the imbrication of feminist theory with practice, and underscores activists' agency in producing the meanings of specific scales. In so doing, the article is aimed more broadly at elaborating the ambivalent relationship between feminist activism/theory and transnationalism.     

RULING LOS ANGELES: NEIGHBORHOOD MOVEMENTS,URBAN REGIMES,AND THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

This paper examines a social movement among affluent homeowners in Los Angeles. It argues that the social movement is highly institutionalized and durable, and that it has achieved many important citywide and statewide goals during the past 20 years. The paper further argues that this social movement should rightly be considered a stable branch of the urban elite along with local business and local government. However, the homeowners movement pursues a fundamentally different sociospatial agenda than either local business or local government, and those differing agendas suggest the absence of a unified governing regime in the city. The paper examines the structure, agenda, and political alliances of the movement through the case study of the debate surrounding the spatial and political reorganization of the City of Los Angeles, the most salient element of which is the possibility of San Fernando Valley secession.     

South Central Farmers and Shadow Hills Homeowners: Land Use Policy and Relational Racialization in Los Angeles∗

This article draws from the recent relational turn in geography to develop a model of relational racialization. It argues that racism functions through the legal and discursive production of linked, interdependent, and unequal places. By comparing two social movements in Los Angeles, the South Central Farmers and the Shadow Hills homeowners, I examine two spatial discourses through which race is relationally reproduced: unequal abilities to mobilize the entitlements of “property rights” and unequal claims to represent hegemonic forms of local heritage. When materialized and naturalized in land use policy, these discourses re-create racial disparities in wealth and poverty and reproduce the qualitative nature of the physical places on which racism depends.     

Mapping the Urban Debtscape: The Geography of Household Debt in Canadian Cities

Abstract

Vulnerability resulting from debt is part and parcel of the risk society and a salient characteristic of current neoliberal times under financialized global capitalism. Rising indebtedness increases the susceptibility of homeowners to housing and labor market restructuring, and if the degree of leverage is very high, can threaten the solvency, living standards, and social stability of local communities. However, very little is understood regarding how levels of household indebtedness are spatially distributed within or across cities, and how private debt maps onto the geography of race, class, housing, urban form, and other social variables, especially outside of the United States. It remains unknown whether and how higher and unsustainable levels of indebtedness might be associated with urban growth, decline, suburbanization, gentrification, immigration, racialization, and/or greying. This article examines the spatial distribution of household debt in Canadian cities at multiple scales of analysis. It analyzes how levels of household debt relate to a number of key socio-demographic and housing variables from the census, including those related to changes occurring over the 2000s. It simultaneously models the geography of debt at the metropolitan and neighborhood scales using multi-level hierarchical linear modeling methods, and in doing so, it identifies some key drivers and correlates of household debt and the scales at which they operate. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the empirical findings for understanding the role of the emerging urban debtscape in the restructuring of the social geography of the city.     

(In)Formal memoryscapes and the unma(s)king of a Malaysian war heroine

The geographical literature on the politics tied to formal commemorations of the past is a burgeoning one. Yet, there has been less attention paid to similar practices undertaken by nonstate agents seeking to ensure that what is written out of official history is not forgotten. This paper explores how and why the story of Sybil Kathigasu, a woman who played a salient role in the resistance movement against the Japanese during the Second World War in Perak, Malaysia, has been peripheralized within formal memory making even as it has been informally revived elsewhere. It specifically suggests that, while the sidelining of her story may be the product of the tendency of the state of Perak to downplay its war past, Sybil's gender, race and political ideologies have also made it more difficult for her to be embraced as a ‘national’ heroine. Drawing on a private museum that was set up in her honor in Papan, the paper also reveals how factors impeding her formal remembrance also have implications for alternative efforts to recover her story. More broadly, the paper offers insights into women's absences in Malaysian public memory, and argues the need for more emphasis on memoryscapes ‘from below’ as a means of nuancing local remembrance politics.     

Vital Statistics∗

This article questions the idea that quantitative methods, in particular the analysis of social statistics, is at odds with critical approaches to geography. It argues that numbers-based research is vital to highlight social injustice and oppression and that quantitative research can meet the requirements of critical geography to be reflexive, politically conscious, and activist. The article highlights two issues of pressing interest for research and activism by critically inspired quantitative researchers. First, there should be vigilance about the retrenchment of data collection and releases by the state, which will end up obscuring the ability to see social inequalities. Second, there should be a vigorous challenge to the political and judicial undermining of the results of statistical sampling and inference. These are vital tools for estimating hard-to-count populations and inferring inequalities between groups. The article gives examples of where these estimation issues are critical, which include civilian deaths in Iraq, counting minority populations in the United States, and the detection and remediation of structural racism.     

Place‐based action in Wollongong: the role of union–community alliances in constructing labour geographies of steel

Place‐based action (PBA) features prominently in labour geographies, particularly in restructuring politics, and is consistently employed as an enduring union tactic, yet it remains relatively undervalued in steel restructuring accounts, with common approaches emphasising the class instability and limitations of such action. In contrast, and to redress the apparent imbalance, this paper argues the merit of recognising PBA as a distinct movement‐based politic with specific forms of representation and empowerment. Such an approach should lead to greater recognition and appreciation of the impact that PBA has had historically. To illustrate this, a case study is presented of how local groups used place‐based action in Wollongong to shape steel restructuring politics and industry policy during the 1980s. Although powerful, the influence of PBA diminished at the policy writing stage. Rather than devaluing all benefits from PBA due to such limitations, it is suggested that the constraints on PBA at this point suggests the need for other forms of intervention. It is concluded that the approach suggested here highlights when other tactics are required, strengthening real‐world tactical analysis.     

Building a Global Sense of Place: The Community Networking Movement in the United States

Community networks help build place-based community by offering individual citizens and organizations access to the Internet, the ability to post information online, and opportunities to discuss community affairs. Community networks are inspired by a dynamic vision of community that incorporates a global sense of place. A global sense of place is valuable because it helps to illuminate a place's connections with the world and may therefore enable scale-jumping forms of activism. This article analyzes interviews with participants in four U.S. community networks to explore how networks combine a politics of mobility, a politics of access, and a politics of place to construct a global sense of place. The degree to which each network emphasizes mobility, access, and place varies. This variation has implications for both community activism and issues of diversity in community. Networks that fail to link mobility, access, and place may increase, rather than decrease, inequalities in access to electronic communications as well as to forms of political power.     

Theorizing and Researching Intersectionality: A Challenge for Feminist Geography*

This article focuses on the concept of intersectionality, which is being used within the wider social sciences by feminists to theorize the relationship between different social categories: gender, race, sexuality, and so forth. Although research within the field of feminist geography has explored particular interconnections such as those between gender and race, the theoretical concept of intersectionality as debated in the wider social sciences has not been addressed. This article attempts to respond to that omission. It begins by tracing the emergence of debates about the interconnections between gender and other identities. It goes on to reflect on attempts to map geometries of oppressions. The emphasis then moves from theorizing intersectionality to questioning how it can be researched in practice by presenting a case study to illustrate intersectionality as lived experience. The conclusion demonstrates the contribution that feminist geography can make to advance the theorization of intersectionality through its appreciation of the significance of space in processes of subject formation. It calls for feminist geography to pay more attention to questions of power and social inequalities.     

ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL STATUS AS DETERMINANTS OF NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITY*

Is social status or participation in neighborhood affairs a more important determinant of one's sense of identity with the local neighborhood? Log-linear analysis of survey responses from 364 residents of a Minneapolis neighborhood explores the relationship of status and activism to four measures of neighborhood identity: cognition, evaluation, attachment and activities. The results indicate that while identity is jointly dependent on both variables, activism exerts a stronger influence. High-status activists stand apart from all other residents in showing the greatest awareness of, and strongest sense of attachment to, their neighborhood.     

Masculinist Epistemologies and the Politics of Fieldwork in Latin Americanist Geography*

Given the importance of fieldwork in Latin Americanist geography, it is intriguing to note the absence of a dialogue about the politics of fieldwork within the subdiscipline. Drawing from feminist theories about the production of knowledge, this article suggests that the silence about fieldwork is rooted in masculinist epistemologies that predominate in Latin Americanist geography. After analyzing the epistemological and pedagogical implications of masculinism, I argue for increased attention to the nexus of power and knowledge and in particular, to how the researcher's geographic location, social status, race, and gender fundamentally shape the questions asked, the data collected, and the interpretation of the data. Dialogue about these issues in our teaching and writing not only will better prepare students for fieldwork, but also has the potential to foster research that subverts rather than reproduces power inequalities.     

Creative democracy and the quiet politics of the everyday

John Dewey envisioned creative democracy as a process of agonistic engagement, and Bob Lake shares Dewey’s optimism for the possibilities of creative democracy. In this response, I suggest that scholars should look beyond the obvious moments of democratic political engagement, whether activism in the public square or in the occupied park, to pay attention to the quiet politics of the everyday, where everyday decisionmaking by individuals and communities can gradually, episodically, change dominant hegemonic norms and understandings, proviing new understandings for social change. I highlight several examples, including the Settlement house movement from the late 19th century and intentional neighboring from the twenty-first century, that illustrate the kind of daily work that brings together different social classes and ethnicities in a situation of sharing and working toward conditions of equality and new ways of living in the world.     

Changing urban governance in Ghana: the role of resistance practices and activism in Kumasi

ABSTRACT

This article examines traders’ resistance practices in Kumasi, Ghana and their significance for changing urban governance in Africa. Conceptually, we introduce “activism” as a new variable into the present concept of urban governance as decentralization, entrepreneurialism and democratization (DED). From an empirical study in Kumasi, Ghana, findings reveal that activism by non-state actors does not only occur at the crucial earlier phases of the urban regeneration process, but extends into the subsequent phases, because urban governance is a continuous process. We demonstrate that activism and a multiplicity of resistance practices are embedded and significant dimensions of everyday urban governance in Africa. This paper argues that the additional dimension – activism – is necessary in rethinking urban governance in Ghana and Africa. This conceptualization views non-state actors not as resisters of urban governance but as activists whose resistance practices and innovations produce tangible and far-reaching changes in city governance. We learn that non-state actors do not rely on the state to control all aspects of urban governance but invent new practices to secure their socio-economic interests and provide them with leverage where they have to negotiate with or stand up to authorities. The study shows that successful change in urban governance is a function of the complementary and strategic adoption of contention, subversion and co-production. When the state perceives that the intervention of other key stakeholders legitimizes the grievances of non-state actors, it responds positively.     

Smell this: Singapore's curry day and visceral citizenship

In August 2011, many Singaporean citizens grabbed their cooking pots and used the city‐state's national obsession with food to express growing dissatisfaction with immigration and integration trends. The ‘cook and share a pot of curry’ event—a local response to Chinese newcomers complaining about the smell of their Indian Singaporean neighbours’ food—is significant for its use of smell to catalyse a collective citizen reaction and for its reliance on contemporary social media. By analysing this event, we intend to (1) conceptualize the role of smell and viscera in framing citizenship; (2) understand how smells shed light on the city‐state's contemporary ethnic politics and sense of national identity; and (3) reframe the significance of curry day as an expression of visceral citizenship that complements how the state frames Singaporean citizenry. We maintain that curry day sheds light on a specific dimension of Singaporean citizenship, as it uses smell, viscera and embodied activism to mobilize against rationalistic state‐defined distinctions between local and international concerns, economic objectives and social cohesion, inter‐racial harmony and national identity.     

"Here a Ghetto,There a Ghetto": The Value and Peril of Comparative Study

This commentary questions whether ethno-racial identities play no role in recent developments in France's banlieues, as Wacquant argues. Wacquant's point that the French banlieues should not be simple-mindedly equated with American "ghettos" is well taken. However, there is no doubt that ethno-racial identities are growing in political and social salience in France. There should be a way to conceptually take these developments into account, without interpreting them as mere replications of American racial politics. I argue that Wacquant overlooks the roles that partisan politics and public opinion will likely play in either assisting or hindering his proposed public policy changes. Change, whether incremental or revolutionary, will depend on the ideas and actions of party politicians and citizens. I also ask whether recent assertions of banlieue identity might be interpreted as somehow violating French core values.     

The political ecology of Prunus africana in Cameroon

This paper provides an analysis of some current trends in political ecology and then illustrates the intermingling of politics and ecology using a case study of the exploitation and conservation of Prunus africana in Cameroon. It argues that political ecology is still a lively field, but that some recent attempts to chart a way forward for this perspective risk shifting it away from its liminal position in relation to natural and social science by being disinclined to engage with ecological processes. The case study draws attention to the strengths and shortcomings in existing attempts to weave political and economic analysis into environmental debates over the sustainable management of this tree species, which has been incorporated into phytomedical markets in Europe. The fortunes of the tree reflect its botany and ecology as well as the trajectories of the local economy, intercontinental markets for alternative health products, the policies and practices of the Cameroonian state and the politics of international aid.     

Declining Union Contract Coverage and Increasing Income Inequality in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

We focus on the association between the institutional factor of union contract coverage rates among workers and the variation in income inequality across a set of sixty-four metropolitan areas of the United States for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010. We use market variables of relative skills and relative education and demographic variables of race and gender as controls in our regression models. We also specify a set of models that substitute right-to-work status for union contract coverage rates. Our primary finding is that union contract coverage rates are temporally consistent and significant negative covariates of income inequality, as measured by Gini coefficients, across the metropolitan areas. Further, metropolitan areas in right-to-work states have consistently and significantly higher levels of inequality than expected given the control variable effects. Our interpretation of the primary finding is that issues of labor power and class play a clearly important role in contributing to income inequality in the set of metropolitan areas used in the analysis.     

Tracing faith-based service landscapes: the contours of messiness at the Open Door Community in Atlanta

A burgeoning geographic literature examines the politics of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in neoliberalized social welfare landscapes. This scholarship on FBOs in the “postsecular city” argues for a “messy middle ground” that explores moments of subversion and resistance, but avoids drawing a clear dividing line between those groups that advance neoliberal agendas and those that resist them. In this paper, I use a case study approach to examine the contours of “messiness” at the Open Door Community, an FBO in Atlanta. The subjectivity of FBO participants is argued as integral to the complex set of perspectives that pre-empt any easy classification of FBO politics. Multiple, conflicting subjectivities and power disparities characterize even FBOs with emancipatory agendas.     

Beyond boundaries? Activism, academia, reflexivity and research

Summary In this paper, I draw on my own experiences to question some of the boundaries constructed around notions of activism and academia. Firstly, I introduce activism as a discursively produced concept with potential both to challenge and to support social exclusion. I propose an inclusive, reflexive view of activism that places us all as 'activists'. Using this understanding of activism and the work of feminist and other critical geographers, I consider the role of reflexivity within research and other activist projects. Drawing on my own experiences of activism, I then explore some of the boundaries that reproduce the academic-activist binary. I suggest such boundaries are actively constructed and may compromise the liberatory potential of academic research. I conclude the article by suggesting that a reflexivity grounded in the contingency of our lives can support activism within the academy and beyond.     

Community and Social Capital in Upper-Income Neighborhoods: An Investigation in Metropolitan Phoenix

This study investigates how upper-income residents respond to neoliberal practices and private governance in forming unusual community relationships in landscapes seemingly devoid of traditional social capital. Based on field work in three communities in metropolitan Phoenix, it was concluded that through private groups and an intrinsic nature to know others, residents create meaningful relationships at scales other than the neighborhood or municipality and focus on nontraditional, privatized community institutions. Whereas these new relationships enhance residents' feelings of connectedness, they generally promote bonding over bridging social capital. Moreover, the draconian effects homeowners or property owners' associations have on normative landscape and behavioral constraints tend to wane considerably as the transition from the developer's idea of place and the residents' vision of place occurs temporally.